In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,781, I have described an infusion apparatus, namely, an automatic coffee brewer in which a fresh water reservoir was connectable with a plurality of coffee-brewing compartments through a distributor utilizing a pump arrangement and has a brewed-coffee reservoir into which the brewing compartments discharged to enable the brewed coffee to be dispensed.
It is known, moreover, to provide such apparatus with a timer for initiating a brewing cycle at a given point in time so that, for example, a pot of brewed coffee will be available to the user in the morning without any preparatory steps by such user before the beverage is prepared on that day. Indeed, with the development of more sophisticated user-friendly apparatus for the brewing of coffee, systems have been proposed which incorporate coffee grinders as well as systems for the production of a variety of infusion beverages in a single machine.
The various apparatuses which provide for sequence control of a number of steps and procedures which can be selected by the user have not generally been made available for use in coffee shops, diners and restaurants, i.e. for commercial or institutional beverage production. Moreover, there is a need for an apparatus which can substantially automatically produce large amounts of infusion beverages in succession for locations of high demand and without the need for an operator determination as to when the brewing of a fresh batch may be required.
It is important, moreover, for restaurant use, for use in convenience stores where infusion beverages like coffee may be continuously produced and in like applications to be able to supply a variety of infusion beverages, especially decaffeinated coffee and regular or nondecaffeinated coffee as well as hot water for tea as demand arises and, in particular, to freshly brew infusion beverages when such need arises.